Thoughts, feelings, and actions: Quantitative comparisons of interactions and relationships among three factors in college students' information seeking

Information seeking is an important topic in library and information science (LIS) research. Thoughts, feelings, and actions are three commonly studied factors. Current information seeking literature reveals two problems: (1) The importance of these factors has not been tested statistically. (2) Relationships among these factors are unknown. Research questions for this dissertation are: (1) Are "thoughts," "feelings," and "actions" important at the early and the later stages of college students' information seeking? (2) How does the statistical importance of thoughts, feelings, and actions at the early stage of students' information seeking correlate with the statistical importance of these factors at later stage of information seeking?; By using qualitative methods, information seeking researchers have not been able to answer these questions. Quantitative methods may be able to answer these questions and provide useful insights about the information seeking process. This study employed a questionnaire, maximum likelihood factor analysis, and canonical correlation analysis as quantitative methods. Qualitative methods (interviews and content analysis) were used to identify variables for questionnaire design. Fifteen college students in a Midwestern university were interviewed for their information seeking behaviors while working on their research papers in spring 2002. Twenty-two variables related to thoughts, feelings, actions, and were identified and then converted into forty-seven statements in the questionnaire; 363 students participated in the fall 2003 survey.; Quantitative methods proved to be a useful alternative approach to answer the research questions. The quantitative results indicated that thoughts, feelings, and actions were important factors. However, feelings and actions were more important than thoughts at both the early and the later stages of students' information seeking. Thoughts, feelings, and actions were correlated with each other between the two stages. Variables related to context and personal characteristics ("other aspects" from the interviews) did not form an independent factor, but rather interacted with variables of thoughts, feelings, and actions during students' information seeking. In addition to the empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, the findings can be applied to improve college students' information seeking skills.